


Stasis

by Zai42



Series: Gore/Kinktober Prompts [14]
Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Science Experiments, Screw Destiny, back from the dead
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-14
Updated: 2018-10-14
Packaged: 2019-08-02 03:01:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16296998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zai42/pseuds/Zai42
Summary: The Archivist makes a trip down into Artifact Storage, seeking something that will help him save his friends. What he finds is probably not that.Prompt: Science Experiment





	Stasis

"God, what have they done to you?"

  
The Archivist breathes it, his fingertips stopping just before they touch the glass keeping them separated. There is horror and curiosity in his face, though Jane doesn't know if it's at the sight of her, or at the marks of what has been done to her. The fear in his eyes stirs something in her that she had thought dead - she has been trapped here for so long, her tormentors so comfortable around her, so secure in her stasis.

  
It takes effort, but she sings to him. _Archivist..._

  
He leaps away, his terror briefly gratifying, but Jane has work to do, and she feels a twinge of impatience. "You're _alive,"_ he says, while Jane recovers from that one warbling note. "Good lord, he kept you alive?" He is back at the glass now; his curiosity is stronger than his fear, of course it is. "Or he...he brought you back? Why?"

  
She can feel his question, burning in her mouth. She replies and fumes that she must waste her energy answering him. _To See.... Why...else._

  
The Archivist hesitates, then presses his hand to the glass between them. Jane is sluggish with cold, but the Hive strains towards him in increments, longing for something to touch. "What did they do?" he asks, and Jane hisses.

  
_Hurt..._ she says, succinctly. _What has he...done...to you...?_

  
He starts, at this, starts to say _nothing_ then reconsiders, glancing away. His palm is still pressed to the glass. "He...I...I did it to myself."

  
For the first time, Jane feels a squirming sympathy for the creature before her, whose destiny has been steered with so little wiggle room. Not with love, as hers has been, but with an iron grip and an All-Seeing Eye. _No,_ she says. _Release us...and...choose for yourself...for once._

  
"No!" The Archivist leaps away from her. "I can't, there are innocent people, you'd - "

  
_He has...made you...this,_ Jane sighs, a melody in every syllable. _We could come to...an arrangement...of our own. Not...his plans...but yours..._

  
She cannot conjure any more words. Instead she offers up a memory, freely, of the day she sank her arm into the wasps' nest and became greater than she had been. She gives the Archivist the knowledge he longs for, not warped by fear or disgust but bathed in love and light, and watches in a fond daze as the tension leaves his shoulders. She shows him all she can, of love and acceptance and walking into destiny with open arms, rather than being dragged to it kicking and screaming. And she shows him what his innocents have done, what agony they have inflicted upon her lovely Hive in the name of their ever-watching god, and what agony they would inflict on the rest of the world if given the chance.

  
_Why...are you...here..._ she finally manages, dizzy and dreamy and half-lost in reminiscing.

  
"Th-they...Peter Lukas..." the Archivist trails off, eyeing her with fear, and something half-hopeful. "My friends," he says, pained and helpless.

  
_Save them...give them to us...we will keep them safe...keep them...together,_  Jane suggests.

  
"That isn't saving anyone," the Archivist says, but there is weakness in his voice.

  
_We...would...love them._

  
He presses a hand to the glass once more, stares into her face as if he could see a sign of deception there. As if she had anything to gain by deceiving him. Then he inhales, slow, and exhales, slower. "Tell me," he starts, then shuts his eyes. "How do I free you?" he asks, and the Hive feels warmth for the first time in years.

**Author's Note:**

> This is kind of a weird one. But aren't they all?


End file.
